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Sunday, May 15, 2016

So, yesterday we had our prom! Prom itself was only the dance, but there was so much more to it, so let's get right into it.
First my friend Claire came to my house to get ready. We took some pictures outside the house, and then headed over to the park to meet our other friends and take pictures with them too. That took about half an hour, and at that point no one could take any more fake smiling. Then we all went out to dinner, and to the dance! The dance was in the science museum, an old train station turned into a museum. The main hall, where we had prom, is a big, circular room with a pendulum in the middle. It was so beautiful. There was a live band playing songs, and we danced for about an hour and a half. Then we went to Mary Bess's house for a pajama/karaoke party!

Of course, that all sounds nice, but it's a story told better in pictures...

The best host family

My wonderful date Gray and I!

Me struggling to put on Gray's boutineer. So, it's traditional for a girl to get her date a boutineer, and the boy gets his date a corsage. Both are small but fancy flower arrangments. The corsage goes around the girl's wrist, and the girl has to pin the boutineer to the boy's suit. As you can see, this was a slight struggle for me. Eventually I got it though, and it stayed on all night!!

Close up of my gorgeous boutineer

The friends gathered in the park

The squad

Prom was honestly one of the best experiences of my life, and it completed my exchange year. I'll never forget this incredible night!!

- Marga

bonus pic:

For those of you who don't know, a few months ago I bought a cardboard cutout of Liam Payne at a thrift store. To this day one of the best things I've ever bought. He also makes for a very good prom picture.

p.s: this blog was written while listening to the Hamilton soundtrack, which shows just how obsessed I am with this musical
#notthrowingawaymyshot

Saturday, May 7, 2016

Right now it's like midnight, and a few minutes ago I suddenly remembered I had a blog. And then I thought, gosh, I wonder what I would write if I was gonna write one now. So, naturally, I got really excited and now I'm writing this. Good thing: I actually have a plan this time, sort of. Bad thing: it's midnight, so I don't know how good this is going to be. We'll see.

Sh. I know, I know, it's literally been months since I wrote anything. I wish I could say it's because I've been busy, but to be honest at this point it's mostly just laziness. For some reason I still had 183 people look at my blog in the last month, and whoever you are, I applaud you. Sorry for the outdated content, but hey, whatcha gonna do.

So, the plan: this post will mostly be me catching you up on what's you can expect from me these next few weeks. More in-depth blogs will follow, hopefully on a more regular basis than three months. The goal is to be caught up before I leave Richmond, which should be possible, but you never know.

First and foremost: I've been accepted as an EF Camp Ambassador! Remember that camp thing I had at the beginning of the year? Well, I get to go back, this time to tell the new batch of exchange students about my experiences. It'll be pretty great.Because camp doesn't start until late July, I get to stay in Richmond with the Kantors until July 15th. This means I get to stay here for 3 more weeks than planned, and I get to celebrate 4th of July (American Independence Day) and my birthday here! Camp will be around a month long, so I'll be landing in Holland on August 13th. Honestly, I can't believe it's only a few more months. The other day I told Karen about how I didn't have much time left, and she said: "No, it's not that bad! There's May, June, July...oh." Yeah. It's about to end now. 'This too shall pass', right?

So, now, what's going to happen in the next few weeks?
Well, this upcoming Saturday, May 14th, is prom! Yes, prom, the formal dance at the end of the year that is such a big deal. And it truly is! Next blog will hopefully be filled with many pictures of my friends and me at prom, I can't wait!

And what can we expect from the blog the next few weeks? Well, catch-up, mostly.
There's a BUNCH of things I really need to write blogs about. It's going to go backwards, which means starting at the most recent thing, and we'll end somewhere in January. So, we're gonna start with the chorus trip to New York, the school musical, then spring break when my dad came to visit, then the weekend that my aunt, uncle and two cousins came to visit, and then we'll be in January, with all the snow!

In other news, I'm completely American at this point. It's gotten to the point where my friends ask me what classes I'll be taking at Freeman next year. The pledge of allegiance is normal now, same goes for the schoolbus and the cafeteria food. Wait, that's a lie, the cafeteria food will always be disgusting.

My friends here are wonderful, and I'm going to miss them so much. And of course, my host family is as much of a family as possible. Sometimes my friends just call them my 'parents' and 'brother' when referring to them, and I think that's a pretty good example of how I've become a part of this...entire thing.

*quick sidenote: one of the great things about this year is the whole presidential election thing. By far the best thing about it, is that I'm not actually here for the next president, so I get to laugh at everyone. They're all legitimately concerned. I'm not.*

Of course, I could write a whole sentimental paragraph now about how I'm going to miss this, and it'll get really sad and stuff, so maybe not. No, I'll throw all that at ya when I'm about to get on the plane.

For now, I'll sign off, and get some sleep! If you have any comments, please throw them at me in some way, shape or form! And I'll see you soon, with some pretty prom pics :)

Marga

P.s: yes, I say y'all. Frequently. I'm pretty sure this is the first time I've mentioned it on the blog, but yes. It is now a thing that I say sometimes, and it's quite troubling.